Newport

For our 30th anniversary celebration, (which was delayed by a year), we toured through New England.  It took us two weeks, we thoroughly enjoyed every single minute, and we can't wait to go back to some of our favorite spots!

Our first stop was in Newport, RI. My husband had an internship in Newport when we were in college. The town has changed somewhat in the intervening years, but Newport is a timeless city and much remained the same. The business he worked for has since moved on and the room that he rented was in a house that 30 years later, looked like every other house on the block. He wasn't sure which house he was in, but I did get to walk through the neighborhood with him as he reminisced about walking to church on Sunday mornings and carrying his laundry 2 miles through town to the closest laundromat. 

It's funny, I would have made certain I had enough clothes for 2 or 3 weeks and then bemoaned the distance from my lodgings to the laundromat while carrying the laundry. He had enough clothes for 7 days, and he made certain everything was either white or dark so that he could do only 2 loads. He explained his logic to me as a stared at him in bemused disbelief. He was in Newport during the winter months, so he was able to wear nice sweaters with white dress shirts underneath. Since he was wearing them under sweaters, he wasn't worried if they got wrinkled after he folded them and put them in his duffel bag.  He gleefully explained that he had 7 dress sweaters, 6 white shirts, 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks, 7 t-shirts, 1 pair of jeans and 3 pairs of dress pants. He had bought Dockers, which didn't wrinkle "that much" in the duffel bag on the way home.  

 

I fell in love with the charm of Newport. There were so many things to see, and the business district along the waterfront was bustling. 

 

With COVID restrictions in effect, we were masked when we went into the buildings and we picked up carry out from restaurants and ate down by the waterfront, fighting off the seagulls for possession of our food. You need to be quick with the gulls! I would open my container long enough to get a forkful of food out, and then quickly shut it again so that they wouldn't get into the box.  You'd think they would be wary of people, but no.  They get so much food from people that they see us as such and easy mark. After a couple of minutes of my aggressive food covering, they left us alone and moved on to easier pickings.

 

 

 

By far, one of my favorite walks was along the Cliff Walk. This paved path hugs the cliffs to the ocean on one side, and has the large mansions on the other. My husband remembers being able to see wide swaths of lawn and the big houses from the path. Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy did a LOT of damage to the cliffs and the landscape has changed. Some of the wide swaths of lawn are gone forever. And many of the big houses now have shrubbery and fences along the cliff walk. I did appreciate the homes that I could see! They are beautiful!  And the ocean.... Oh, any view of the ocean is a good view.  The day we walked along the cliff walk and explored the inland neighborhood, I ended up with blisters on my blisters.  My pedometer said that I had walked 30,000 steps that day.  

 

Late spring/early summer in Newport. aahhh.....